Man convicted of killing Christine Smart gets 25 years to life in prison

A man found guilty of killing Christine Smart, who disappeared from a California college campus in 1996, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

On Friday, a Monterey County judge sentenced Paul Flores, calling him a “cancer to society.”

The judge also denied defense requests to acquit Flores and order a new trial.

Smart was 19 years old when she disappeared from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Her remains were never found, but prosecutors said her classmate Flores killed her while trying to rape her in his dorm room. In October he was convicted. His father was accused of helping to cover up her body, but he was acquitted.

The Smart family spoke out after the October split verdict.

“Without Christine, there is no joy or happiness in this verdict,” Smart’s father, Stan Smart, said at a press conference after the hearing. “After 26 years, with today’s split verdict, we know that our quest for justice for Christine will continue.”

He described the incident as a long and painful journey.

“This case will not be completed until Kristin returns home, and we have made this commitment from the very beginning,” he said. “We don’t take a breath. We don’t leave it aside.”

The jury unanimously found Paul Flores guilty of first-degree murder. Once sentenced, he could face from 25 years to life in prison. Conan Nolan of NBCLA reports.

During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors presented testimonies from dog handlers who stated that their cadaverous dogs had stopped in Flores’s room and smelled death near his bed. Archaeologists who used ground-penetrating radar and excavated the soil below the rear deck of Reuben Flores said they found signs that the soil had been disturbed in the same way as the grave.

Court documents filed as part of the April 2021 bail hearing when the Flores were arrested showed that San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department investigators had biological evidence suggesting that Smart was once buried under deck of Ruben Flores behind his home in Arroyo Grande. about 12 miles south of the college campus.

When Paul Flores first spoke to police, he downplayed his interactions with Smart at the party and on the drive home. He said she walked to her dorm on her own, although other witnesses said Flores helped her hold on and she passed out earlier in the night.

The new information was revealed in a court document filed in the Christine Smart murder case. Broadcast Wednesday, April 21, 2021 on Today in LA.

Witnesses called to testify included Smart’s parents, college friends, forensic analysts, detectives, and acquaintances of Paul Flores. Some have provided details of conversations he had with them around the time Smart disappeared.

His son’s lawyer, Robert Sanger, tried to convince the jury that someone else had killed Smart. He noted that Scott Peterson, who was later convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and the fetus she was carrying, was also a student at Cal Poly SLO at the time of Smart’s disappearance.